Relatives of passengers aboard American Airlines flight 587 crowded Santo Domingo's airport today, sobbing and grasping each other after hearing that the flight bound for the Dominican Republic had crashed shortly after takeoff.

"Oh my God" said Miriam Fajardo after being told that her sister, Norma Lilian Baloi, and three nephews were aboard the flight bound for Santo Domingo's Las Americas international airport. "I hadn't seen them in eight years. Now they're gone."

The jet crashed in a residential neighbourhood five miles from Kennedy airport in New York, the authorities said. There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries but aviation officials said 246 passengers and nine crew were on board.

"I woke up early just to greet them," said Melida Reinoso who had gone to the airport to meet her husband and son. "Why did this happen?"

The flight was due to arrive at 12.51pm local time (16.51pm GMT).

"Not the child, please not the child" said Germania Brito who was waiting for her sister Mariana Flores, her husband John and their two-year-old son Isaias. "May God help us all."

Bill Schumann of the US Federal Aviation Administration said there was no immediate indication of what caused the crash, which came two months after terrorists in two hijacked airliners brought down the World Trade Centre.

All New York metropolitan area airports - Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, New Jersey - were closed after the crash, which took place in the Rockaway section of Queens. All bridges and tunnels into the city were closed except to emergency vehicles and the United Nations was partially locked down.